Bay Area Dealers

[BlueNotGreen]

From my experience, Sunnyvale Ford certainly wins the clown award. Their asking price was $59,200. What a bargain, that is only 50% markup over MSRP. :roll:

To insult a customer to that degree has something behind it. Perhaps it was a game they play amongst each other, or perhaps it was related to the overly attractive woman who showed up shortly after me (who had a 99% chance of being of a very well established profession), and that price was simply to get rid of me so the guy could get to more pressing matters.

It may sound like I am joking, but everything I have said is accurate (of course my guesses are only educated guesses).

Tomorrow I am heading to my fourth dealer in the Bay area. I will follow up if this one actually works.

 

[BlueNotGreen]

After visiting my 5th dealer over 6 weeks or so, I finally found the right one. I purchased from Towne Ford in Redwood City. I went there about 2:30 pm on a Tuesday so they weren't too busy. Price negotiations still took a few round trips back to the manager to agree on something, but that is to be expected. I had a very good price offer from Livermore Auto Group, so working with that number helped me.

I certainly recommend Towne Ford. It was the first time I left a dealership and wasn't angry.

Mistakes I made earlier (at other dealerships):
- Don't give out your personal information unless you are in the process of purchasing (who knows what they will do with it)
- Don't just drive to a dealer and expect to get a good price (I learned that lesson at Sunnyvale Ford (a bad place, from my experience))
- Don't just assume MSRP because it is a new model with some wow factor (once you get a price then work between dealers)
- Make sure they actually have vehicles in stock and don't count on their web site inventory being accurate

I was expecting at least two visits to finish the purchase, but since I negotiated to a price I liked, both for the new car and my trade-in it all happened in just a few hours and I drove back to work in my new car. Mind you, my trade-in had low miles for an 8 year old car, and was in excellent condition.

The salesman I dealt with at Towne was named Riaz. I recommend him (but then pretty much everyone I met there seemed reasonable).

Good luck for those still looking.

 

[igh]

Bluegreen thanks for you input. I am still waiting for my car to arrive. Your experiences are so far similar to mine. Now the price of the car has dropped below MSRP in most dealerships. If you do not mind could you please tell how much below? Though your trade-in complicates the picture a bit. I do not have a trade-in. This will be the 3rd car. Will keep the Highlander Hybrid for longer trips with family and gear.

 

[BlueNotGreen]

You can get $2k under, but realistically you may need to work your way there, and as you mentioned, the trade-in may make it appear better because the dealer may realize extra gain on a quality trade-in and were therefor willing to go further down on the other side.

For me, this car is totally worth the frustrating visits to dealers before I happened upon Redwood City (Towne Ford). Something neat about the office layout is that the managers location (as far as I can tell), is just this large desk out in the open, not some hidden office. My guess is that this was done to express openness, as in nothing hidden (just my take).

Driving my new beauty is a real treat. However, I don't want to ride on highways for fear of flying rocks blemishing my perfect condition (especially with the road construction on 101). Thankfully I have good surface road options for driving to work.

This car is so worth the effort. Now I just need to learn about how to run all the built-in gadgets.

 

[igh]

Finally got mine from Harrold Ford, Sacramento. They had the only car with the specs I wanted - Frosted Glass/Silver with no leather within a 150 mile radius. Got a few dealers here like Morgan Hill Ford and Fairfield Ford to do invoice price but they just did not have the car. Harrold Ford matched the price and one positive development happened due to the wait - Ford offered $1000 factory cash. So got it for 36k + tax + regs fees + misc - 39728 out the door. No trade in, my own financing.

Driving it to south bay was a challenge. Found a Chargepoint charging station at Martinez about half way down. Came to the station with 4 miles left in the battery (whew)! There it charged for 3 hours while I surfed the web at a Starbucks. Finally drove it home at 8pm. Got 76 miles range at 65 mph cruise first leg (no AC, just fan and radio). Got 78 miles in the next leg.

The other car is a Volt. Finally gas free - feels great.

Ford is reluctant to make a full commitment on the FFE. They are restricting supply. The car I was waiting for at Morgan Hill Ford was built on 7/17 but was not delivered
even after 6 weeks. Morgan Hill Ford could not give me a date when it would be delivered.

I will keep my old Highlander Hybrid for the long drives/family vacations.